So many people are struggling to get enough rest in their lives. One of the reasons for that, is that we think we can burn the candle at both ends, we think we can do it our way. But … God made us. He knows us.  Maybe we need to try, His way.

GOD’S REST COMES ON GOD’S TERMS

I remember once, way back, when I was a teenager. You know how difficult teenagers can be when they are growing up. And there’s a reason for that, being a teenager is about moving from childhood to adulthood and that means establishing yourself as someone who is independent of your parents. And because it’s a learning time, okay, we all make lots of mistakes as teenagers, that’s why God put us in families with parents who have both the love and the maturity to cope with our mistakes and to guide us through that growing up process.

Anyhow, I must have been pushing the boundaries quite a bit and my father said to me, he said this, ‘Son, I love you very much but as long as you live in my house, under my roof, eat the food I provide and wear the clothes that I buy for you; you’ll do as I say. If you don’t like it, then there’s the front door. Go and live on the other side of it.’ Well … well, I was so offended. How dare he say that to me? How dare he?

Now, my dad passed away a few years ago now and I am no longer a teenager – I’m in my fifties – I have some grey hair and hopefully, just a bit more wisdom and maturity in life than I did back then. And what I realise now is that all that my parents provided me with in those growing up years, was a privilege and a blessing and because they were the providers, it came on their terms, not on mine.

Now this week on the programme we are continuing in a teaching series that I’ve called “Oh God, I Need a Rest” and today’s programme is about ‘how’ … how to enter God’s rest.

I know that this is a subject that kind of hits the spot with many, many people – quite simply because so many people are tired. Tired of the grind, tired of the stress, tired of the problems, tired because they work so hard, tired because … well, there are so many things that can make us tired … so many!

This week we are going to look at how to enter God’s rest – how – rubber hits the road! And the first part of the ‘how’ comes back to the story that I shared with you about my teenage years and that tough lesson of love that my father had to teach me when I was being precocious and self-centred as teenagers sometimes are. What was the lesson? Simply this: that the blessings that my parents heaped upon me came on their terms, not on mine.

I always find it interesting that of the Ten Commandments, the first four are about our relationship with God – how we should honour Him. And the very next one, the Fifth one, is about us and our parents. Have a listen to it because the lesson we need to learn is reflected right here in the Fifth Commandment of the Ten. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12 says:

Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

See, the blessing of long days is attached to obedience. God blesses us when we honour our parents and get this … this Commandment comes ahead of: “You shall not murder”, which is number six; “You shall not commit adultery”, which is number seven and “You shall not steal”, which is number eight, and so on. So God considers it of first importance after our relationship with Him and that … that is the first thing that we need to know and to learn about blessing. It comes on the terms of the giver, not on the terms of the receiver.

And it’s exactly the same with blessings that God gives us – peace and rest. Those come on God’s terms and that’s something that I’ve had to get through my thick skull. It’s taken a while, and you know, to be honest, it’s still a work in progress.

See, spiritually, when it comes to obeying God, I think we want to be teenagers – we want the blessing on our terms, as though somehow we deserve it. Well, let’s get a revelation together today you and me: we just don’t deserve it! God’s blessing is an act of grace that comes to us through the death of His Son who paid for all our sin.

In a nutshell, here it is, Adam and Eve had a perfect existence in the Garden until they disobeyed God. Genesis chapter 3, verse 11: God said to Adam:

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

And so they lost their perfect existence. We’ve done that too in rebelling against God and we read through the whole of the Old Testament and we see how incapable humanity is of honouring God and so God sends His Son to pay for my sin and for yours to open the door again so that we can have a relationship with Him. But have a listen to what the New Testament says about God’s peace and rest and how we get it – how it becomes available to us. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning at verse 9. Grab a Bible if you have it and join with me. It says this:

So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. For those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one may fall through disobedience. (Hebrew 4:9-10)

The one thing that takes God’s Sabbath rest away from us is what? – disobedience! And actually that’s something that I’ve learned in my walk with God. It’s something I know in my experience. See, when I have decided on occasions to go my way; to do things my way – just like the old Frank Sinatra song – against God’s will, you know what happens? There’s no rest; there’s no peace – life all of a sudden, starts getting complicated. If we harbour anger in our hearts, if we fail to forgive people, if we steal or lie or grumble or commit sexual immorality, against God’s will – and all those things are against God’s will – we lose any sense of peace. And without the peace there’s no rest.

On the other hand, when we obey God, well, have a listen. First John chapter 5, verse 3:

For the love of God is this: that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world – our faith

When we obey God we have victory. And what does victory bring? Well, when there’s a war and finally, one side wins in victory, what comes next is peace – what comes after that is rest. When Israel entered the Promised Land they fought battle after battle after battle to take the Promised Land from those who were living in it. And they obeyed God and what happened? Joshua chapter 21, verse 44:

And the Lord, listen to this, And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors.

My friend, the rest of God, His peace, come on His terms and not on ours and the sooner we get that, the sooner we will enter God’s rest.

EMOTIONAL REST

Peace, rest, satisfaction, contentment … I don’t know one person on this planet who doesn’t want those things in their lives. Do you? But I know lots who are the way I used to be – troubled, stressed, torn on the inside; people who chase after what this world has to offer; what the advertising industry holds out as being THE holiday, or THE car, or THE house, or THE clothes, or THE watch – whatever it is that’s going to deliver us rest.

The problem is, none of those things can because rest is something that comes when we are at peace inside and there’s only one place – only one – where I’ve found that. You see, for us to have rest the battles have to cease. Israel … Israel was entering into the Promised Land, they had to fight battle after battle to take the land that God had promised to Abraham, centuries before, but at the end of it all, as we saw earlier, ‘The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He’d sworn to their ancestors – rest on every side!’

Wouldn’t that be nice? How do we get that? Because the reality is that we all have battles in our lives. Doesn’t seem to be ever a time in our lives when we don’t have at least one battle going on – if it’s not this thing, then it’s another. And we somehow imagine, ‘If we had enough money, if only we were rich, then those battles would go away.’ But they don’t! Look at the number of rich and wealthy and famous people – movie stars, rock stars who have taken their own lives or have died from drug overdoses. It doesn’t end when you have lots of money. So where do we find that peace? Where do we find that rest? Have a listen to the Apostle Paul where he found his rest. Romans chapter 5, beginning at verse 1 – he writes:

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and that hope won’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Peace with God! “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God.” When we put our trust in Jesus, we’re justified through that faith. In other words, we’ve turned against God and while we are in that state there is hostility between us and God. Elsewhere in Romans chapter 8, verse 7, Paul writes that when we set our minds on ourselves, our wants, our needs, then our minds are hostile towards God. Paul finds peace when the hostilities between him and God cease – they are no more because he had surrendered his life to God by putting his faith in Jesus Christ. By believing that Jesus dying on that cross paid for our sin – the requirements of justice were met and by faith in Him, Paul and the rest of us, now have a right standing with God – that’s what ‘justified’ means.

See, we go looking for peace in all sorts of funny places – all over the place. I’ve jumped so many planes, travelled to so many places, bought so many things in my life to find that rest and that peace and none of them … listen to me … NONE OF THEM delivered a lasting rest. The only place I found that is in the end of hostilities between God and me – when I surrendered and I put my life in His hands by putting my trust in His Son.

Notice how Paul goes on then to talk about suffering. See, suffering takes on a whole new meaning – it’s not the thing that robs us of rest anymore, it’s the thing through which our hope in God becomes real. Have another listen – Romans chapter 5, beginning at verse 3:

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and that hope won’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whose been given to us. (Romans 5: 3-5)

Suffering is the place where we experience the love and the presence of God through His Spirit. Suffering is the place where we grow up; where we mature and where the light of God’s hope shines ever more brightly. Paul demonstrates that when he writes to his friends in Corinth – talking about his sufferings and the reality of God’s presence in him through those sufferings. Again, have a listen to Paul. Second Corinthians chapter 4, beginning at verse 6:

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But you see, we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be clear to everybody else that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be visible in our bodies.

We imagine somehow, that the battles in our lives have to cease for us to discover the rest and the peace of God but Paul is saying exactly … exactly the opposite here. What he is in effect saying is, ‘Look folks, the most powerful thing in my life is the reality of the presence of God – my relationship on the inside, with Him. Now sure, I carry that round in an ordinary body; a clay jar, but have a look at what that means – people persecute us and try to kill us for telling others about Jesus but even though we are afflicted in every way, we are not crushed; okay, perplexed some days, sure, but not driven to despair; persecuted, absolutely but not forsaken; beaten, struck down, yep, that too, but not destroyed.’

See, we carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies and what happens then is the thing that everyone else sees in us, is life – the life that Jesus brings. My friend, yes, there are times when rest is about physical things – sleep, a break from work each week, a holiday each year, good diet, exercise – those things are important but we can have all those things and still not enter into the rest of God.

As Israel stood on the threshold of the Promised Land, knowing the battles that they would have to face to take it over, this is what their leader, Joshua said to them – Joshua chapter 1, verse 13. He said:

Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord, commanded you saying, “The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land”.

For you and for me, we have something better than the land; we have God Himself and no matter what battles may be raging on the outside, on the inside the very presence of God Himself brings us rest.

PHYSICAL REST

Now, okay, we saw earlier that we need emotional rest but we also need … some people desperately need … a physical rest – we do. So how do we get a physical rest? Well, we sleep every night; we hopefully, each have at least one day off work, maybe two, each week – for most of us that’s Saturdays and Sundays – then once a year we take a break from work – they call that a holiday.

Now, that’s the ideal but the problem is many, many people struggle, incredibly, to get the sort of physical rest in their lives, they need. Take Japan, for instance. Traditionally, people work very, very long hours in Japan, then many of them will go out for drinks and dinner afterwards with their work colleagues, then on top of that, most of them have a really long commute home – a hour or even two by train – often getting home late at night, only to have to get up the next morning early, early, turn around and do it all again for another day. See, socially, it’s a huge issue for the Japanese.

Others, well, millions and millions of people work in sweatshops in the developing world, for a few cents an hour, to make the consumer goods that we in the West consume so voraciously. The idea of getting two days off a week or a holiday, well, that’s just a pipe dream.

And then there are people like me, who can choose to have time off but we were born as workaholics. We get up early in the morning; we work until late in the evening, burning the candle at both ends. So when it comes to talking about having physical rest – I’m sharing some thoughts with you and hopefully, a bit of wisdom with you, as someone who has spent much of his life as a workaholic – and suffered the consequences of that and learned to get some balance back into his life. Still learning, actually!

Perhaps you have heard me quote this Psalm before but when we talk about getting physical rest in our lives, it’s one that I come back to again and again, because it speaks of God’s love for us and His will for us, which is why I want to share it with you again right now. Have a listen – Psalm 127, verses 1 and 2:

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for God gives sleep to those whom he loves.

What I’ve discover is that when we are addicted to something or we have some entrenched pattern of behaviour going on in our lives we can’t seem to shake, we need a reason to change. And when that reason takes hold of our hearts, the changing is much, much easier.

Let me give you an example. When I was young, in my late teen years and my early twenties, I was a heavy smoker – three packets a day; between sixty and seventy-five cigarettes a day. I was absolutely addicted. I tried to give up on many occasions but I’d failed over and over again. And then one day I was in a hospital room with a woman dying of cancer. It had started in her lungs – she had been a smoker too when she was young. And that night I stood there and I watched her breathe her last breath. I saw the death rattle that goes on in the body when it dies. I walked out that room that night, took the half full packet of cigarettes in my pocket, threw them in a bin outside the door. That was in 1983 and I haven’t had a cigarette since.

See, when something happens deep in our hearts, it can result in powerful change in our lives and that’s what this Psalm is about. Have another listen:

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It’s in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for God gives sleep to those whom he loves. (Psalm 127:1-2)

What that tells me is that God loves me – that He’s interested in my life – that He’s doing things in my life and I don’t have to kill myself to get it all done for myself. Actually, He doesn’t want me to be anxious; to work eighteen hours a day, as long as I get about building the house that He’s building, all I have to do is my bit and He’ll take care of the rest. And He wants me to have a good night’s sleep because He loves me. You see, that touches my heart!

So as much as I am a workaholic by nature and as much as, in a growing ministry like Christianityworks that serves you and millions of others around the world, every day by producing and distributing these radio programmes, and as much as I love doing what I do, here is what this Psalm has taught me to do. I’m an early riser. In fact, the morning I was putting my notes together for this programme, I was up at 3am, cup of tea in bed and then after some time with the Lord in prayer, I was at my PC in the study around 4.15am in the morning.

Now, I have always been an early riser – it’s when I do my best work. But these days, even though I work a long day, come around 4.00–4.30 in the afternoon, that’s it, I’m done. I don’t work nights, accept on very rare occasions. I have almost all of my weekends off and each year I try and take a couple of breaks, particularly over summer and Christmas, to get away from work and I turn my emails and my phone off.

Now, it may sound simple but making those changes has been a huge deal … a HUGE deal for me. I’ve discovered I can work hard, which I love and have physical rest at the same time. And even though some nights I might only sleep, five or six hours, other nights I make sure I get eight or nine hours to compensate. I am through walking through life bleary eyed – it’s plain dumb!

Now, I don’t know your circumstances – maybe you have young children or a long commute or whatever it is but here’s the thing: pretty much all of us can figure out how to get enough physical rest – sleep and a break from work once in a while, to make sure that instead of being bleary eyed, good-for-nothing zombies, we’re more at the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed end of the spectrum.

And as well as just enjoying our lives a whole bunch more, it’ll bring joy to God’s heart because He loves us and He wants us – you and me – to get a good night’s sleep. Do you get it?